Turmeric Chicken

If you read this blog, you will know that I love Malay cooking. Every time I go back to Malaysia, I never miss out Malay food, especially Malay nasi campur (rice plates) or nasi Melayu, where I get to choose the dishes to go with a plate of steamed white rice. I always go crazy with the wide selections—rendang, chicken in spicy sauce, sambal sotong, egg sambal, sambal okra, and the list goes on. Every single dish is so enticing and mouthwatering and I just wanted to eat them all. Sometimes, I would have 5 or 6 dishes on top of the steamed rice. I love it, because Malay food absolutely rocks in the taste department.

One of the dishes I love is turmeric chicken (ayam goreng kunyit or ayam masak kunyit). Depending on where you get this dish from, the chicken could be deep fried (hence the word “goreng“) or just simply cooked in a simple stir-fry. Out of all the dry spices, I am partial to turmeric, or kunyit. Growing up, we used a lot of turmeric in our kitchen; turmeric adds a beautiful yellow color to the food and lends the exotic nuance and aroma to every dish that we made at home. This dish is no exception as the turmeric makes the chicken intensely tasty. The onion, red chili, and French beans add to the texture, presentation, and flavor of the overall dish.

Most people don’t like to deep fry chicken at home, so this is my take on the traditional Malay turmeric chicken, or ayam masak kunyit. It’s a simple stir-fry dish that anyone can make at home, and takes less than 30 minutes to make.

I’ve got turmeric powder here already but my local greengrocer has just started stocking the fresh root. What would be the fresh equivalent of the powdered turmeric? Also have you got any more recipes for using turmeric? I’ve read that it has some really good health qualities so now that I can get it fresh I’ll start using it more often. Thanks for your help.